Description

Celebrating the diverse diasporic cultures and music within India and of the Indian diaspora abroad, the Remembered Rhythms festival brought three groups of performers to the cities of Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad and Mumbai. The underlying theme was diaspora – of other cultures in India and the Indian diaspora itself.

The Sidi Goma represented the African Sidi community of Gujarat in India, D’Bhuyaa Saaj of the East Indian community from Trinidad and Rivers of Babylon, a London based group of Indian Jews participated in this event.

The music performed by the Rivers of Babylon combines the religious and secular music of the Indian Jews – the Baghdadi an the Bene Isreali tradition of India, consisting folk songs, hymns for Sabbaths, festivals and life cycle events, and Middle Eastern instrumental items. The languages of the songs range from Hebrew to Aramaic, Judeo-Arabic Arabic and Marathi. Harking back to their Indian roots, the Rivers of Babylon include vintage songs from Indian films in their repertoire.

This CD is accompanied by notes on the communities, their culture and music by eminent scholars, and detailed track notes, along with discographies, bibliographies and photographs.